The Role of Delijan-Isfahan Highway in Structural and Functional Changes of Rural Settlements (Case study: Villages of Shahin Shahr and Meymeh)

Recognizing and clarifying the magnitude of the impact and the role of the highway on each of the functional and structural factors and, consequently, the application is a fundamental step in the optimal and proportionate planning process of rural settlements, which has so far been neglected. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of Delijan-Isfahan highway in structural and functional changes of rural settlements in villages of Shahin Shahr and Meymeh. This is an applied research. The research method is descriptive-analytic. The statistical population of this study is the population of 15 villages with population of Shahin Shahr and Meyme, which consists of 2834 households. The sample size was 338 people based on the Cochran formula, and 338 people were distributed among the villages in terms of population size. The data gathering tool was a questionnaire containing 48 questions in sections (social, cultural, economic, physical, and environmental factors) with the number of questions (10, 4, 10, 8, and 5), respectively. Data were analyzed by SPSS software for T-test, Friedman and SmartPLS software for structural equation modeling. The results indicated that the highway on structural-functional changes with 0.18 path coefficient, on social transformations with path coefficient of 0.48, on cultural changes with path coefficient, 0.53 on economic changes with path coefficient of 0.30, on physical changes with path coefficient of 0.37, and on environmental developments, the perimeter of the path coefficient has been affected. In the meanwhile, the status of the body index is in a better situation and the cultural index with a lower mean is in less favorable condition.